The present invention relates generally to new and novel improvements in automated teller machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to automated teller machines which include two or more customer operation stations and one or more cash handling mechanisms, wherein the cash handling mechanisms are capable of servicing more than one of the customer operation stations.
Automated teller machines have been widely installed at financial institutions and other locations. Generally, automated teller machines are operated by customers for withdrawing currency from and depositing currency and other negotiable documents into various customer accounts. As a possible alternative, automated teller machines can be set up to permit customers to only withdraw currency, and not make deposits.
Conventional automated teller machines generally include a single customer operation station and a corresponding single cash handling mechanism. When customers are operating such automated teller machines, the entire automated teller machine, including the customer operation station, as well as the corresponding cash handling mechanism, is monopolized by the customer, regardless of the operational status of the customer operation station or the cash handling mechanism.
Some automated teller machines, for example the one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. SHO/62-10788, include a cash dispensing mechanism and a plurality of cash output ports arranged in parallel. In this type of automated teller machine, the currency dispensed by the cash handling mechanism is delivered selectively to one of the cash output ports. However, there is no further information disclosed in this reference as to whether or not requests to the cash output ports may be made concurrently, and if concurrent requests are possible, as to how the automated teller machine operates in response to such concurrently made requests.
Generally, an automated teller machine operates in three stages: (1) the machine magnetically reads data from an account identification card inserted by the customer and receives and verifies the customer's personal identification code and the amount of the requested withdrawal or deposit; (2) the machine gains access to a central computer to ascertain the customer's bank account and its balance; and (3) the machine dispenses or accepts currency for withdrawal or for deposit. The time required to complete step (1) varies appreciably depending on the customer's familiarity with and skills in performing the operations at the customer operation station. Step (1) normally takes a substantial portion of the total duration of time which the automated teller machine requires to complete a single transaction.
In many conventional automated teller machines, the cash handling mechanism is relatively bulky and takes up a large amount of space. In addition, the cash handling mechanism normally constitutes a significant portion of the total cost of the automated teller machine.
However, the cash handling mechanism of a conventional automated teller machine which may include a currency storage portion, a currency counting portion and a currency transport portion, does not operate at all during automated teller machine operation steps (1) and (2). This is a factor contributing to the failure in lowering the cost performance of automated teller machines per customer operation station and in hampering efforts at downsizing automated teller machines.
One solution to this problem is to furnish a plurality of cash handling mechanisms and/or to have the cash handling mechanisms shared by a plurality of customer operation stations. However, this solution entails other disadvantages, one of them being that the congestion due to multiple customers concurrently accessing the currency handling mechanism may cause the processing of some operations to be suspended temporarily. Another disadvantage is that as the number of times currency is withdrawn from a cash handling mechanism increases, that particular cash handling mechanism requires currency replenishing more frequently.
A conventional cash management system including a plurality of automated teller machines does exist where the cash management system supplies cash to any of the automated teller machines exhausted of currency and collects currency from any automated teller machine when it is filled with deposited currency above a predetermined level. However, this cash management system differs from the present invention in that the latter is intended to operate the cash handling modules of each automated teller machine efficiently, while the conventional cash management system aims at integrated control over multiple automated teller machines having one cash handling mechanism each.